States Ahead of the Nation

Author Catherine A. Hopkins Hoffman (1855-1920) writes about Colorado and uses the state to pursue her argument of why women deserve the right to vote.⁸

“In a Suffrage State” written by Catherine Hoffman was published in 1912. It is a firsthand account of the campaign for women’s suffrage and provides valuable insight into the movement. Her text recounts her experience of traveling to Colorado, a state that granted women the right to vote in 1893, as she was trying to help get the rest of the nation on board. As highlighted through “The Awakening” exhibit, Western states granted women the right to vote well before the ratification of the 19^th Amendment for a variety of reasons. Washington for example, granted women the right to vote in the hope of increasing their population. After all, reformers targeted their work towards the states because ultimately, the decision lies within them unless a federal amendment got passed. 

“Contrary to popular opinion, the 19th Amendment did not give women the right to vote - it guaranteed women the right to vote” ⁹. States including Wyoming in 1890, Colorado in 1893 Utah and Idaho in 1896, Washington in 1910, plus ten others prior to 1920 already had granted women voting rights⁹. Statistics such as these were found in a PDF document published through Rutgers University which had previously done research to find out the logistics and timeline for the states that had already previously granted women the right to vote. I would also like to note that although the 19th Amendment guaranteed all women the right to vote, the road to equality for people of color was far from over. It wasn’t until the 1965 Voting Rights Act that African Americans gained the right to vote without the threat of discriminatory voting tactics.